Citigroup Reports on Health Management Associates (HMA)

In a report released yesterday, Citigroup raised its price target on Health Management Associates HMA. Citi states, “We are publishing a new forward model through 2013 for HMA. There is no change to our previous 2011 and 2012 estimates, but we are slightly raising 2013 by 4c to reflect slightly better margin performance given a number of internal initiatives. In addition, sizeable current acquisition activity lends an incremental upward bias to our previous thinking. We are raising our existing 12-month price target from $12 to $13. The target implies that HMA shares can trade at a 13.4x 2013 P/E a year from today.” Citigroup has a Buy/Medium Risk rating on Health Management Associates and a price target of $13.00. Shares of HMA closed the trading day on Friday at $11.30, down slightly from $11.39 at open.